


Birds of a feather

by FeatherQuill



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Smut, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 18:09:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14676585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatherQuill/pseuds/FeatherQuill
Summary: They were birds of a feather, even if Loki hated that term, he knew Thor was right. So were does that leave them? -Post Thor: Ragnarok, before Infinity War.





	Birds of a feather

**Author's Note:**

> Just something little that came around while talking to a friend. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think <3

Loki knew, despite his mockery of his brother that Thor wasn´t a fool when it came to battle, when it came down to the things that mattered, that he was always there. He also believed that it made him the fool of the two them because he followed. 

“Are you too surprised to keep your promise , brother mine?”

He says instead , oddly sweet and with a calculated smile, the bottle stopper Thor threw at him still in his hands. It´s a funny notion that he still refers to the other man as brother because they aren´t. Never were – at least not in blood. And now they were without a place that connected them, as well.

The story of his Life – never fitting in, never belonging. It left a bitter taste in his mouth he would wash away with something strong.

“I don´t make promises I cannot keep, Loki.”

The _unlike you_ goes unsaid but it stands between them like a wall, so highly and thickly build that not even the strongest of warriors would be able to destroy it. It is theirs and theirs alone - nobody will ever be allowed near that metaphorical wall if either of them has a say in it.

“Unlike me.”

He says instead, sidestepping Thor and looking out into the vastness of space, something he never tires off and that yet reminds him that he is still existing despite all the little and big explosions around and in them.

“I haven´t said that.”

Where Thor is always light, he will always remain shadowed. Not that he pities himself, he just cannot stand the light as much as Thor – not that he would ever admit it, really. There would be no point to it and more important, no fun.

“No, but you were thinking it rather loudly brother, were you not.”

Thor just huffs out a breath, the air around them crinkling with energy. He knows what would have come next if they would still be younger, still less damaged and uncaring of the world. These days the Blonde doesn´t burn everything around him to cinders, doesn´t tear the world around them apart. 

“You are the One of us thinking too much, too loud.”

Maybe some things have changed but not the mere fact that Thor can sneak past every barrier he upholds and sneak close to his very core, no matter how innocent his words may seem – no Loki does know better.

“Am I? I thought we are on different paths now, are we not? I thought there would be no more mindless squabble and useless banter.”

He feels his own magic crawl under the layers of his skin, dancing along his nerves and coming to a sudden stop right behind his eyes. 

“There is no reason to be mad, brother. I am merely honoring your wishes, am I not? Wasn´t it always your greatest desire to be on your own terms, without father at your side – smothering you ?”

The magic pulsing through his body sparks from his fingertips like the sad little remains of what once has been a great firework. Still it would hurt if he really would want to inflict pain on the man in front of him.

“Since when do you know what I desire you headless one eyed oaf?”

So, it may not be his best or wittiest comeback but he can see that Thor at least looks a bit offended, so he goes in for the kill.

“Like always you seem to have forgotten something very important as well – we are not brothers, nor will we ever be, no matter what you think in that utterly thick skull of yours!”

It also seems that per some paradox their very natures have been reversed although Loki certainly would have felt _that_

“I may have lost an eye but that doesn´t make me blind, does it now?”

Well – maybe not everything has changed in the time and between wars. Thor still had a horrible sense of humor that makes Loki none the less quirk up a lip before he can catch himself and focus on the unspoken thing between them. That little thing that always had been there and will never go away no matter what everyone else thinks or says. 

They know nothing nor will they ever understand. 

“It doesn´t make you intelligent either.”

He gripes instead and now Thor is shaking his head, trying to hide his laughter before it can escape into the world and settle in between them like it always had back when they were children with nothing to care or worry about. Thor knows as well as him that the past is just that – past, time that will never come back and unlike himself he can let go of those poisonous thoughts rushing through his head.

“Not to prove your point but what promise of mine did you wish to be fulfilled – I am not sure I made any recently.”

Loki , for all his silver tongued wisdom just blinks and stares like some mindless young thing fluttering around the Thunderer begging for the mans attention. Clearing his throat, he shakes his head, trying to get his jumbled thoughts in order.

“Not a promise – an offer, granted , it is only naturally you would confuse those, wouldn´t you?”

There is something dark in Thors gaze, his good eye the color of a stormy sea, jaw set tightly in a line that gives Loki a moment to gloat.

“As always, you twist the words spoken to you like you want to register them and as always I will say to you that you have to listen. For someone so brilliant you are surely dim witted.”

Before Loki can throw something at Thor – a knife, the damn bottle stopper or even a spell, Thor is right in front of him, hands on his smaller shoulders. There is nothing but warmth in the other mans gaze and he feels envy pull at his insides. Envy that he cannot be like that, envy that he doesn´t dare to hope.

“Am I now? Did I lie to you that when I said we are not brothers?”

Thor just closes his eye, without doubt inwardly counting to ten if not a hundred before he speaks again in that too soft voice.

“No, we are not but nor do I wish to be your brother. I wish for us to be birds of a feather, from the same flock, free to fly away if there is need to do so. Don´t you understand that?”

Who knew that Thor of all people could be so poetic, Loki thinks but he doesn´t say it because he understands perfectly. He understands that they always will be themselves , no matter what others want them to be or idolize them for. In their own little world they are just two boys, now grown men with their desires hidden from the world but glaringly visible for the other.

“You´re afraid I would have betrayed you.”

 _Again_ goes unsaid as well but Thor just shrugs, never loosening his hold on the smaller mans shoulders like it should be natural that they stand so close to one another, two planets revolving around each other without anything at all to disrupt their cycles.

“You´re here.”

Thor merely says, a bit of wonder still in his voice and Loki just knows that it isn´t betrayal Thor fears, no. It is the fear that he will lose again and again what he cannot lose. It makes Loki dizzy. So dizzy that he all but crashes into the nearest piece of furniture, which happens to be the bar behind him– or at least he would have wouldn´t it have been for Thors hold, a steady gaze matched by steady hands. 

He is not fooled, can feel the slight tingling along his skin again and it gets stronger. Thunder wanting to be let loose to rage and consume, something he had always loved about Thor even if it never had been uttered into the world. 

“I am here.”

Loki acknowledges, looking up, only to look down again, thinking back on lost summers and long forgotten winters. _Sentiment_ A nasty voice inside his head whispers and it sounds much like Odin but that has to be his imagination or his bitterness. Thor is well aware of his feelings, like he always has been but not always has he been wise enough to keep his mouth shut - he has learned that at last. 

“Birds of a feather, remember.”

A small smile begins to tug at the dark haired mans mouth before he can help it.

“I imagine you would make a very fashionable chicken.”

It leaves his mouth before he can stop it, never could be tamed when it came to speaking his mind if he felt so lost and yet belonging.

“Is that so? A chicken and a cow, what a pair we both would make.”

In his memory he can hear the tinkling laughter of their mother and even it wasn´t by blood Frigga will always remain that to the both of them. He clears his throat, trying to get rid of the sudden feeling of melancholia rising inside his treacherous heart.

“It´s not that people don´t look at us already.”

He tries for light but Thor sees through it, has done so since they were children, no matter how much he pretended that he didn´t. 

“You are dressing like a witch.”

That´s it, the thing that makes Loki come out of his stupor and he shoves at Thor. He might be the smaller one but he is by no means weak, he never was -they both know.

“Take that back.”

He snarls , all snapping teeth, manifested rage inside his very core for the same reason Thor himself charges at him at almost the same time. They crash together, head to toe, differences be damned, not a hairs breath between them.

“Never.”

The slightly taller man growls but Loki holds his ground.

“Why?”

His voice is rough around the edges, some forgotten hurt that has nothing to do with the silly comment but the fact that he never has seemed good enough, wise enough, strong enough- a shadow to the sun shining above the head of the people of Asgard. 

“It may come as a surprise to you but even you do not know everything about me or what I am capable of.”

Thunder crackles around them, a sure sign that Thor does quite well understand what he is saying and yet not leaving.

“It is easy for you, isn´t it – to pretend to be a monstrous beast when you want to be left alone in that self forged prison inside your head.”

To that, Loki has no answer because he doesn´t want to lie about the one thing that always has been true. Thor rambles on. 

“If you want to pity yourself you can do that in solitude but not while I am right next to you. I will not allow it.”

There is a lump in his throat that no magic trick will help dissolve. 

“Where does it leave us then?”

Thor doesn´t say a thing, just draws him close like he always has when they were smaller, when one of them was hurt by whispered words or idiotic choices. They aren´t children anymore, they arent´t really brothers but it was something that doesn´t matter – never had mattered before.

“Here, right were we are, does it not ?”

Barely keeping an eyeroll to himself Loki finally closes the distance between them. For all their roughness the kiss is soft and languid, a thing of beauty grounding them both. 

They don´t speak because it is not necessary for Loki knows that look in his brothers eyes, the awe and the want – only openly directed at him now because they are finally free, unbound by duty and family, nobody in the humid room but them. 

“Loki.”

Only now he realizes that his eyes have slipped close and he blinks, tries to focus on anything but the rush of thoughts running through his head.

“Are you already regretting your choices?”

His voice should be full of venom but he is only tired. Tired of trying, tired of hiding. Like always Thor manages to destroy his doubts with a simple brush of lips against his own.

“It will never be a choice.”

Thor says, matter of fact before gently prying clothes away, kissing skin on his wake down and like always Loki is glad to follow him down, sounds escaping him, flesh against flesh once they land on the floor. He loves the sounds he can draw from Thor and the way the other mans flesh feels beneath his own trembling fingers. 

Time is a funny thing, he muses even in the throes of passion, spine bowing and skin burning from heated kisses, hands on his hips, holding him in place. It rushes when you are at peace and drags on when you are in despair. Maybe it isn´t that funny but that is a thought for later – right now, all he wants to do is feel , not unlike Thor who has his lips sealed over his own, faint tremors rushing through his large frame and always the crackling of thunder near the surface.  
The devil himself could walk in on them right now and he knows they wouldn´t care one single bit about it. 

It seems like days have passed when they both lay heavily breathing on the floor, eyes to the ceiling. Thor even hums a little before he turns his head, rolls to his side.

“For not being on the same path we surely want the same things in life.”

Loki mutters, Thor snorts but doesn´t move otherwise.

“Birds of a feather.”

Loki smiles, not moving an inch from where he is and neither does Thor.


End file.
